Looking For An Online Job? Appen Work From Home Review

Want to work online but prefer the safety of a job rather than building up your own business? Below, Sam from Outside That Cubicle, describes the jobs that you can find online with Appen Connect including the mythical search engine evaluator role that helps Google refine their search algorithm. 

Finding the right work from home opportunity can be a bit daunting when you are first starting out and when there is so much misinformation floating around.

I found a great opportunity when I started working for Appen Connect almost four years ago when I started working online. Since them, it has been my full time income source, and it continues to be one of the main sources of my income even today.

I have made up to $2007 in a single month being an Indian and you could potentially make $3500- $4000 working with them if you are from first world countries.

This article seeks to show how Appen Connect could be the company that you can try out today and how jobs at Appen might suit you if you need flexibility and freedom to work from home.

Ready to dabble in some real online jobs? Let’s get started!

What Is Appen Connect?

Appen Connect was formerly known as Leapforce. Leapforce was founded by a former Google employee Daren Jackson in Dec 2008.

With just about over dozens of full-time employees they hired thousands of independent contractors from around the world.

The Australian company Appen (Global) acquired Leapforce in late 2017 and re-branded Leapforce as Appen Connect in early 2019.

Appen Connect operates out of its same Leapforce office in Pleasanton, California.

All the projects that were formerly there in the Appen Global platform have been moved over to Appen Connect.

So Appen (Global) is the parent company of Appen Connect. All the work at home projects have been shifted to Appen Connect now.

When And How Did I Start Working With Them?

I started working with them in June 2016.

In 2016, I was jobless and was desperately looking for something that would bring in some money.

It was at that time of desperation that I read about search engine evaluator jobs in PennyHoarder and that’s how I applied to work with Appen Connect and have been with them ever since.

I have since gone on to work in multiple projects inside Appen Connect and have made some decent money in the process.

Jobs At Appen – Types Of Appen Remote Jobs Available Right Now.

There are dozens of online work opportunities inside ranging from long-term projects to short one time surveys. After its acquisition by Appen, dozens of projects from Appen have moved to Appen Connect.

Also many of the independent contractors from Appen has have been moved to Appen Connect platform.

In fact as of now, the parent company, Appen doesn’t handle any online work anymore. It has all been offloaded to Appen Connect along with the transfer of workers from there.

So I would be using the term Appen and Appen Connect interchangeably to mean the same thing i.e. Appen Connect.

The Appen remote jobs can be classified in to following categories –

• Appen Search Engine Evaluator Job
• Appen Social Media Evaluator Job
• Appen Transcription Jobs
• Microtasks
• Other Appen Remote Jobs

I will briefly go over each one of those categories.:

Appen Search Evaluator Project

This is the oldest project in Appen Connect. In fact, this company was founded solely for the purpose of this project.

It was only much later that other projects were added.

What is search engine evaluation?

Search engine evaluation is the process of evaluating web-pages, images, videos, etc and rating them on a given scale as per the given guideline.

And those who do search engine evaluation (like me) are known as search engine evaluators.

Evaluators indirectly help Google refine their algorithm as they use the annotated human feedback from thousands of raters located all over the world and they feed that data to their algorithm which in turn is responsible for giving us desired search results when we type something in Google.

Rater is a short for search engine evaluator. They are also known as internet assessors, personalized internet assessors, Google raters, internet analysts and so on.

There are multiple search engine evaluator projects inside Appen connect like –

• Yukon – This is the main project inside Appen Connect. This is where you want to be as this project allows one to work for the maximum hours per week, and this project has been there since the beginning of Appen Connect.

I work at Yukon Project and have been in it since 2016. I make anywhere from $500 – $2000+ per month with this project alone!

You can work anywhere from 20 – 40 hours per week at this project.

Raters are supposed to rate the helpfulness and relevance of search results for a specific query that users like you and me issue in Google (or speak to it).

Based on the parameters outlined in the pdf file called the General Guidelines for Search Quality Raters (aka myself), raters would classify the search results in a given scale.

To learn more about it, you can enroll in this free course HERE.

• Sanaga & Wouri – These projects are kind of similar to the above, but it is from a different client. They don’t have many tasks per month. One might get around 10 hours per month, while in some months, we don’t get any tasks at all.

Appen Social Media Evaluator Job

Social media evaluator job is a project in which evaluators evaluate sponsored ads, claims made in articles, videos, links, etc in social media like Facebook or Instagram.

Some of the social media evaluator jobs in Appen –

• Nile
• Slickrock

They are discussed below in brief.

Nile – In this social media evaluator project, all that you have to do is to give your personal feedback on the sponsored ads that you see in your Facebook feed.

You get to work 1 hr/day 5-7 days a week. This project lasts for 12 months approximately. After that you are not added to it as Facebook requires new eyes to give them feedback on their ads.

You need to complete this work in the mobile Facebook app.

Slickrock – In this project, one is required to evaluate the quality and relevance of recommended contents in Facebook stories.

The work has to be completed on a laptop/desktop. One has to be able to commit 30 mins x 5 days a week in this project.

Apart from the above mentioned projects, there are several other social media evaluator projects like Tahoe, Truckee, etc, that require Instagram or Facebook apps to complete the work.

Appen Transcription/Annotation Jobs

Appen also has multiple language transcription jobs in addition to the projects mentioned above.

Here are some of them –

• Rafferty
• Bryant_TA

I will go over each one of them in brief.

Rafferty –  In this project, you are required to rate the quality of  English translation into your language. Your feedback is used to improve the machine translation system.

Bryant_TA – This project involves annotating the contents of the words in a display ad into different levels of granularity as outlined in the project guidelines.

Expect to work for around 3-4 hours per day in this project if you are accepted.

Appen Microtasks

There are various one time tasks inside Appen Connect in addition to the above mentioned projects.

These are microtasks with very little task volumes. Don’t expect to get consistent work in these projects.

Some of the one-time projects in Appen are –

• Clover Express – short one time survey, requires at least 25 Facebook friends.

• Beegum_Henry_Image Collection – need to collect at least 280 images of different scenarios.

• Concho – short 15 mins survey that can be done 4 times a month

Other Appen Remote Jobs 

Other remote projects inside Appen Connect are –

• Calawah – Spelling correction project
• Dorian – Video project
• Caledon – Annotation project.

Besides the above mentioned projects, there are multiple other projects inside Appen Connect.

Also the project availability depends on where you are located and varies from person to person. For example, if you are in Australia, you may not see the projects that I see in my Appen dashboard as I am located in India.

Also even if you are from the same country, the projects you see inside may vary from the other person from your own country.

Appen Salary – How Much Do Appen Pay? 

In this section, I talk about the Appen pay rate. Appen don’t pay us any fixed monthly salary. They pay us by hours worked or by tasks completed.

How much they pay varies depending on where you are located, the project you are in and the complexity of the project.

Appen Search Engine Evaluator Pay 

The web search evaluator pay varies widely from $3 – $13.5 per hour. In developing countries like India, they pay $3 per hour.

In most western countries, they pay anywhere between $9 – $13.5.

Appen Social Media Evaluator Pay 

The pay rate for social media evaluator projects are also the same as above. It ranges from $3 – $13.5 per hour depending on where you are located.

Appen Transcription Pay

Transcription projects are pay-per task projects. You are paid $0.1 – $5 per task as the task length and complexity varies from project to project.

Pay rates for other projects are similar. If it is a project that pays hourly, you get paid anywhere from $3 – $13.5 depending on where you’re located.

Appen pays between 12-15th of every month for the work done the previous month.

Appen Application: How To Work For Appen In 2020?

Working for Appen is pretty simple and straightforward. All that you have to do is to go to their website, fill up some fields, attach a CV and hit submit. It is that simple. I will guide you step by step in the next sections.

But first, let us talk about the requirements to work with Appen –

Basic Requirements

• Computer/smartphone – Most of the projects require a computer as well as a smartphone. But most social media evaluator projects only require smartphones.
• Payoneer Account – Appen pays through Payoneer. It is their preferred method of payment. Create a Payoneer account here and get a $25 bonus as soon as you are paid $1000 to your account.
• Stable Internet Connection – At least 10 Mbps stable internet connection is recommended. But honestly I have worked with far less internet speed.

Project Wise Requirements

It is impossible to list out all the project wise requirements as there are so many projects inside Appen with different requirements

So I list here just some basic general requirements –

• Length of Residency – Most long term projects, like Yukon, require that you have been living in your country for at least 5 consecutive years.
• Language Skills – You must be fluent in both the written and spoken language of your country or in the language in which there is job opening
• Active Social Media/Gmail User – Most social media evaluator projects expect that you are active on it and have at least 25 friends. Some search engine evaluator projects require that you be active users of Gmail.
• Up to date – You should be up to date with the current affairs of your country.
• Experienced internet user – You should be extremely comfortable navigating the web and researching.

Application Process

Applying to Appen is pretty simple and straightforward. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do it –

Step 1

Go to their website here – Appen Sign Up

You would be taken to a site like this:

Select your country from the drop down as shown by the circled drop-down menu in the image.

Step 2 

In the next page you will see something like this:

You will have to select your primary language. In my case, my primary (work) language is English. So I select English.

Next you got to select your dialect. Dialect is nothing but your country.

You can add any additional languages if any and check the checkbox if you have any translation experience.

Step 3 

After hitting next in Step 2 above, you will be taken to a page where you would need to:

• Agree to terms and conditions
• Enter your full name
• Enter your email address
• Add a password ( this will be your Appen password)
• Enter your address
• Add your CV
• Enter your educational level

And then hit submit.

As soon as you hit submit, you will receive an email confirmation about your application.

Step 4 

What I am seeing these days is that due to several thousand applications that Appen receives daily, Appen support rarely invites applicants to work on projects. And frankly we shouldn’t be waiting for them to invite us to work on any project.

So, here is what you can do.

After submitting your application, straight away go to the all Projects tab and see if there are any projects that you can apply for. See if there is any project that you can work in, read the project description and then hit the Qualify button.

Projects might not be added to your account immediately. So you might have to check in regularly.

Projects To Choose: Working For A Long Time With Appen

I have been with Appen for almost 4 years now, since 2016. And it has only been possible because of the project that I am in.

I work as a search engine evaluator with them and have been active since June 2016. I work in the project Yukon – that’s what they like to call it.

I have also started working in some other search engine evaluation projects, but I don’t know how long they will last.

But project Yukon has been around since the beginning of Leapforce (Appen Connect was formerly known as Leapforce) and it will be around for years and years to come, because our client needs our services. They need raters like you and me to give them human feedback.

Most of the social media evaluator projects are one-time projects. They last for approximately 10 -12 months max and they don’t rehire once that contract is over. They look for new people all the time.

Survey projects are all short-term projects.

So while applying for projects, always read the project description first and then apply.

And definitely, apply to Yukon if you want to work for a long, long time. You can check out this free course on search engine evaluation (Yukon) here.

So the secret to working for a long long time with Appen is to choose a long term project, namely search engine evaluation projects like Yukon.

And maintain the required quality scores in monthly quality checks.

Some FAQs

Some oft repeated FAQs when it comes to working as a search engine evaluator or working with Appen in general are addressed below.

Question # 1 Do I have to be fluent in English?

Not all. Most of the projects, especially the search engine evaluation ones like Yukon are in local languages.

Say you’re in Japan and you would like to work on the Yukon project. That project would be in Japanese, and so on for the rest of the world.

You only have to be good in the language of your country.

Question # 2 Do Appen hire worldwide?

Yes, most of the projects in Appen are world-wide projects. They hire from almost all over the world.

Question # 3 Do I become an employee of Appen if they hire me?

No. Appen will hire you as an independent contractor. You will be responsible for your own taxes and won’t get any leave benefits.

Appen’s sister company Raterlabs hires (only) Americans as part-time employees (15-26 hours per week), with some benefits.

So if you are American and want to be a search engine evaluator, Raterlabs is the company you want to go with.

Working For Appen: Pros And Cons

Like all work from home jobs, working with Appen has its own merits and demerits.

We will first talk about the pros –

• You become your own boss. You decide when and how much you want to work provided you meet the minimum hours required in certain projects.
• You get to spend more time with your family.
• You get time to venture into other areas of your interest. For me personally, I would never have had the guts to start blogging had I not started making money online through Appen.
• You don’t have to get stuck long hours in traffic going to work.

And the cons of working in Appen are –

• Constant quality checks can be quite annoying in the beginning. It is easy to maintain the required quality scores though, if one follows the guideline diligently.
• You might have to wait for a long time to get into the project as many people apply to their projects daily.
• Every project got a qualification test. Yukon test is pretty hard while the others are easy.
• You might have to track your own time in some project.

Final Tips 

Working with Appen has changed my life. I would perhaps never have started blogging had it not been for Appen.

I know many people who have been with them for over 8+ years. I myself have been with them for almost 4 years now.

Here are my not-so secret tips to working with Appen –

• Choose a long term project (like Yukon)
• Read the guidelines of that project like hell
• Ask questions in the social feed
• Participate in chat rooms for that specific project
• Practice all the simulations and peruse all the extra study materials of that project, if any
• And don’t forget to email support for that project, if you have any doubts.

Over To You

I am quite fortunate that despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, I can still work from home and make money.

Not a lot of people are that lucky. My heart goes out to them.

If you are stuck at home like most of us, and if you have wanted to dabble into online work, this is perhaps the best time to do it.

Go sign up for Appen here and start making some extra dollars.

Good Luck.

Remember, you can take Sam’s free training on search engine evaluation here.

Passionate work from enthusiast, Sam Narzary has been working online as a Google rater for almost 4 years now. Now he teaches others how to be a Google Rater at SearchEngineEvaluator.net and how to find other genuine work from home opportunities at OutsideThatCubicle.com and get out of the mundane 9-5 life.